I have a lonely settler start that appears to be 2 tiles away from a village out of curiosity would you stay or leave and why? i normally just take the axes and go to somewhere near a river or ocean

In my third game I first traveled the world to find a culture with blacksmiths and agriculture like the Kiesse. Then, since I already started with a handaxe, I first ordered a splitting axe, then a pot in case I had to boil turnips you can buy from the Kiesse. If I didn't start with a handaxe I would have ordered a handaxe first. I crafted javelins and traded them for food from settlements, this is more efficient than fishing where you can barely sustain yourself with active fishing. I collected the nettles and hemp from the fields around the villages and then crafted a net for fishing. I also started crafting longbows for trading. I didn't have mittens so I bought fur to craft mittens. Then I ordered a woodsman's axe to start building my house and then a small knife to make better bows. I got a broad axe and I got the full set of axes. I finished my house and tried smoking fish, but turns out smoking is not worth it since it takes 16 days and it requires you to tediously keep the fire burning. I wish I collected more hemp and nettles and had more yarn so that I could make more long bows, I had no yarn so I had to make javelins for trading. I ended up traveling at night during winter and I froze to death, turns out you can freeze to death in winter even if you have fairly good protection against cold.

In the fourth game I rolled the Kiesse culture, and I was under the impression that northern tribes don't have blacksmiths, so I was happy that I rolled a culture that had blacksmiths. Turns out northern tribes do have blacksmiths, though they are still rather limited in what they can craft. I still wanted to find a master blacksmith so I traveled the world, in the last game I actually got lucky and found a master blacksmith quickly. I bought all the yarn I could find. Then I found the Njerpezit culture and learned that they are apparently always hostile. I died.

In the fifth game I rolled a char with poor skills but with a rough broadsword. I exchanged the broadsword for a fine carving axe and a couple of other things. I traveled around almost the entire Sartola culture until I finally found a master blacksmith. Eventually I found out that you will die if your fatigue gets too low when swimming.

In the sixth game I found a master blacksmith pretty quickly. I decided I will incorporate traps, I read the forum a bit and found the location between 2 lakes that should in theory increase the chance to trap an animal. The traps do work, though a bit slowly, I was getting some rabbit, arctic fox, and then bird kills. I collected 10k+ nettles, crafted 2 nets and bought 1 more. I checked the nets after day+2 time, the day+1 method listed on the wiki appears inferior. I got all the axes, I built my house, I bought woollen clothes and a bear fur to get maximum cold protection. I got a total of 5 nets to get the fish economy up and running. I got some other tools and full winter clothing, and I spent a lot of time crafting longbows in winter and checking nets. You can't really get out because day is short and you could start freezing in winter even if you have dark green protection against cold everywhere except yellow on hands and neck and light green on elbows. Apparently elk/reindeer fur has higher warmth value than bear fur, so I switched to that. By the end of winter I had spectacle helm, masterwork mail mittens, masterwork iron coudes, mail cowl, masterwork roundshield, masterwork broadsword, masterwork longbow, and various pieces of bear clothing thanks to fish + longbow economy. Then I started saving for a masterwork mail habergeon that I found. This is going to take some time. I also found foreign traders with masterwork mail leggings, but I couldn't find them once I bought enough furs to buy the leggings. Relying on roasted fish once you can no longer dry fish requires trading fish for something else such as furs or pots.

Is there any reliable way to find foreign traders without wandering around aimlessly and getting lucky? It seems that once you get full mail coverage + iron and a battlesword you have essentially achieved the best combat setup. Then ideally add wool (in theory wool>fur because 2x wool clothes weigh the same as 1x fur, and all defense values are better or equal except 1) and buy enough dogs. How many Njerpezit are there in a single camp?